By Dr. Fairy Hayes-Scott
Owner, MarketingNewAuthors.com
"Mommy, she called everyone in class but me!"
“Pumpkin, are you sure? Perhaps, she did not see you.”
“Mommy, she saw me. And I know I was the only one who had a report on a Black person.”
I was a third grader and decided to choose to report on a Black person since I had not had a book or lesson about any Black people who had accomplished anything.
Thus, one day I lamented in frustration to my Mom, "Has Black people done anything?" She answered in the affirmative and took me to a public library. It was there I found a book about famous Black people, one of them was Louis Daniel (Satchmo) Armstrong.
Since I was in a class with few Black students and knew that I was the only one going to report on a Black individual, I was really anticipating the opportunity to do my report. Well, it did not happen. I was hurt.
So, when I became a teacher, I always made sure I did my best to answer every raised hand or acknowledge every student letting him or her know I would get to his or her answer as soon as I could. For my students, they knew they could not "hide" from me or be missed because there was no front or back of the classroom. I walked all around the classroom doing my best to make every student feel he or she was the center of my concern.
Sometimes, my students (before I retired I taught seventh, eighth, and ninth graders and community college students for 45 years) may have wished they were not the center. I would even call upon students who did not raise their hands (the exception being when I perceived I should not or they would tell me they were having a bad day). I never wanted to embarrass a student, but I wanted to motivate every student to be confident in his or her answers and know that I believed in each student’s personal worth.
